The author, a Pulitzer Prize winning author, presents a sweeping saga of the post-World War II superpower arms race. Using personal interviews with U.S. and Soviet participants, newly released materials, personal memoirs, and oral history, Richard Rhodes describes the events and political forces in both nations during the Cold War, a period when they came close to a nuclear war and then almost agreed to abolish nuclear weapons. His examination of the characters, personalities, and exchanges between the two main players, Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, provides new insights into that critical period. The narrative climaxes with their historic meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, where the two leaders nearly reached an agreement for eliminating nuclear weapons. Thorough research and an extensive bibliography support the author’s premise of the folly of nuclear arms.